


How it started

by Amara22



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Bat Family, F/M, Identity Reveal, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 03:06:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17716856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amara22/pseuds/Amara22
Summary: The team and justice league find out who hides underneath the masks and with the show of faith comes shattered trust.





	How it started

AN: I have wanted to write a bat family identity reveal story for a while now and I finally worked out all the bugs from my story. 

This is set in an alternate universe because I don’t really follow the comic books even though I have an idea of the story lines, so its sort of set in the Young justice universe with several changes that I made to fit my story. The story takes place after season 2 with Wally alive but completely disregards season 3.

Chapter one

When Batman first allowed a child known as Robin onto the team Superman didn’t know what to think. It was a well-known fact that even though Batman was part of the League and that they trusted him, he wasn’t the friendliest man on the planet, in fact no-one knew anything about him. He was a man all about the job, none of them ever thought that he would have a protégé to be put on the team.

Batman didn’t allow any of them near him, he trusted them to watch his back but not with his secrets, none of them knew who he was under his mask and he had never come to any of them for any sort of help even though many leaguers were friends in and out of the masks.

Kid Flash often spoke to his Uncle Barry about the team and how things were going and the one thing that they all agreed on was that Robin didn’t speak about himself or his mentor. As time passed many people on the team wondered about the person using the name Robin, they were sure that the mantle had been held by at least two different people because Nightwing had become the teams leader even though they knew nothing about him apart from what they knew in the mask.

Once Nightwing had created his own mantle, there had been another Robin but there were many questions about the new kid. Was he chosen by Nightwing to pick up his own mantle? Was he the partner to Batman or Nightwing? How was this new kid related to Batman and the original Robin? How were the original Robin and Batman related? Were they father and son or something else?

Their questions were never answered and as time passed the heroes that worked alongside the bats had come to the agreement that they would never understand Batman or Gotham. It was a fact of life that only the most insane and deranged dared to set foot inside Gotham. The other heroes were never allowed inside Batman’s city and he never called upon them for help which was why when the Joker managed to broadcast his plan to break out every single inmate in Arkham and have them riot in the streets, several heroes tried to get in contact with Batman to offer to help him.

Their request to help was met with a growled out ‘No’ and Nightwing cutting the feed to the watchtower. Several members of the league and the team watched as a man wearing a red helmet killed several criminals with his guns as the cameras caught Batman, Nightwing and Robin rounding up the criminals, saving lives and then finally taking down the Red Hood who had become a scrounge of Gotham’s underworld and was some sort of mobster that liked to kill other criminals.

It was an eye opening day for several heroes who finally saw what Gotham truly was, how much darker and so much more dangerous than the rest of their cities it truly was and suddenly they all understood why Batman was the hero that he was, because he was the only reason Gotham was still standing. Gotham was just so much more than what they had to deal with and several of them knew that they would never be able to cope in that city. Their respect for Batman had increased but that never changed the many questions that they had. It answered why Batman was such a dark and secretive man but they still had no answers to their many questions about his personal life.

Several heroes got some information on the Joker, many wanted to know more about the man that even the Batman feared, wanted to know why he such a dangerous man compared to rest of the villains that they had faced in the past. It was then that they saw his estimated kill count and it was more than any other person that they had seen and there even some rumors that he had killed a Robin something that no-one believed because Robin was still alive from what they knew. 

The only person who managed to come close to the Jokers estimated kill count was the Red Hood and every person that he killed had a record. He was notorious for being a criminal who only killed other criminals and he even attempted to kill Joker however Batman interfered and Red Hood became another urban myth for Gotham. They knew he wasn’t killing anymore but they didn’t know what he was up too anymore.

After Wally had returned from the speed force and the team had been allowed to operate from within the watchtower it was kind of obvious that many of the heroes both leaguers and the team were angry with Nightwing. They had trusted him and his games and his secrets had caused many problems that could have been avoided if he had trusted them. They had put up with a lot of his secrets but this wasn’t personal anymore, he had played with their lives.

Nightwing knew they were angry and he kept his distance especially since Kaldur had returned to take his place as leader once more. Time passed and even though Nightwing no longer operated as the leader but went on a few missions with the team it was obvious that the trust that the team once had in him was no longer there. He worked mostly with the League or alone and the other heroes wouldn’t speak of Nightwing in the presence of Robin. Robin would not hear of their unkind words towards his predecessor and no one wanted to damage their relationship with him even if they didn’t agree with him.

The League and the team had returned from a mission and many were taking a breather before they went back to earth and their lives. Nightwing, Batman and Robin had all been suspiciously absent from this crisis and many had questions to why they had bailed on them especially when they had been needed, several heroes were pissed that their friends had ignored them.

“Does anyone know why none of the bats picked up our distress calls?” asked Conner.

None of them wanted to fight but they had gotten into a sticky situation and they needed the backup and none of the bats had answered their comms. It was a miracle that Megan hadn’t died from the fire cage that she had been trapped inside.

Wonder Woman never liked to pry too deeply into the bat family, many of the leaguers speculated but she was never someone who wanted to guess. She would either know the truth or know nothing and Batman always made it very clear that his personal life was something that none of them needed to know and if there ever came a time when his personal life made problems for the league then he would give them answers but other than that he was entitled to his privacy however not responding to distress calls was not something that happened every day.

“We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. It is possible that there is a crisis in Gotham that prevented them from coming to our aid. It isn’t like any of them to just ignore a distress call.” Replied Black Canary.

“We deserve answers. We waited for a rescue that never came.” Cried Wally and the discussion was interrupted by the zeta tube announcing, RR B-0-3-1.

No one had ever heard that one before and no one knew who had come out of the zeta tube. It was a teen about 17-18 years old wearing a black and red suit with gold belts in an X on his chest with a bird on it. He was wearing a mask but he was also bleeding from several places and limping. His cape had burns on it and it was still smoking. He spat out the blood in his mouth before throwing himself at the monitor.

“Code 87510036.”

The monitor responded by glowing green and the word accepted flashed on the screen.

“Lock down bunker, cave and clock tower.” The teen ordered and the screen flashed green again and the boy finally sagged down in relief and sat on the ground.

“Who are you?” asked Superman and the kid just rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hand, “Others are incoming, look Superman its been a really bad couple of days just give me a minute.”

The computer announced Nightwing and as soon as he entered Conner wrapped his hand around his neck, “Why didn’t you answer the distress signal? Megan could have died.”

Nightwing tazered him, it wasn’t enough juice to hurt him but enough to get Conner to let go and everyone took in his appearance. His suit was torn, he was bleeding and they were sure that several of his fingers were broken. His mask was torn and there was blood in his hair.

He ran to the teen on the floor and immediately pulled him into a hug before speaking, “Where is she RR? Are you alright? Is she alright?” Many could hear the distress in his voice, whoever Nightwing was asking for, he obviously cared for the person very much and the person must have been in grave danger.

The other teen put a hand on his shoulder, “Breathe N, she’s fine. I left her with RH and BB while I led them away. They should be here any moment now.”

The zeta tubes fired up again and this time a girl appeared, wearing an all-black suit with a black bat on the chest and she even had a full mask with the lips sewn together. She was limping and her cheek was bleeding but other than that she was fine. The man behind her made everyone pause, it was the Red Hood, wearing biker boots and a leather jacket with a red bat on his chest and his helmet. There were several shocked breaths at the sheer amount of guns that he carried on his person however no one moved to attack him as he carried a red haired girl in his hands.

She was wearing a white dress and her long hair was in a braid which had turned messy, the most shocking thing however besides the fact that a civilian was in the watchtower was the fact that she was at least five months pregnant. Nightwing gave no fucks about anyone watching them when he immediately kissed her and put a hand on her belly.

“She’s fine Big Wing. They’re both fine, didn’t let no one touch her or the lil one.”

Nightwing let out a relieved breath as the woman was passed from Red Hood to Nightwing with a nod of his head.

“Where are the others?” asked the woman and the three boys shrugged.

“We got separated O.” replied the teen.

The zeta tube announced more people, this time a girl in purple entered and immediately the teen went to kiss her, she was bleeding from her head but other than that she seemed fine. A smaller Robin than the one that they had been working with appeared and Batman entered behind them and immediately everyone let out a sigh of relief.

“What’s going on?” asked Superman and Batman led the strangers into the medbay.

Batman pulled off the cowl, showing his face to the league and the team and announcing, “I’m Bruce Wayne but you all know me best as Batman.”

Several jaws dropped as the children saw to each-others injuries Batman explained, “I became Batman when I was twenty two years old, two years later I met an eight year old boy who I saw myself in. His parents had been killed by a mobster and I adopted him. His name is Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson.”

When Dick heard his name he peeled of his mask and waved to the crowd of heroes watching them before turning back to the woman on the bed while Batman continued explaining, “He was also the first Robin. The woman on the bed is Barbra Gordon soon to be Grayson, when she was twelve she became the first Batgirl, a year into Dick’s time as Robin. When Barbra was sixteen, I was going to allow her to join the team however she got shot in the spine by the Joker and was paralyzed.”

Wally’s jaw dropped as he looked between Nightwing and Barbra. Conner looked guilty, he had been so worried about Megan that he didn’t stop to think that maybe Nightwing had been in danger or that someone he cared about had been in danger and looking at the people in the room, something big had went down, something that had threatened Nightwing’s unborn child. Barbra just waved to everyone and smiled as Dick fussed over her.

Batman on the other hand continued his explanation, “When Dick turned sixteen he wanted his own identity and thus he created Nightwing. There was no Robin on the team for about a year after that happened but there was a Robin in Gotham.”

Seeing the looks of confusion, Batman sighed, “While Dick was finding himself and Barbra was coping with what she had lost, I found myself missing a partner and I missed having a child in the house. I found Jason Todd on the streets stealing the tires off the Bat mobile. I adopted him when he was thirteen and he became Robin when he was fourteen. He was with me for a year and just before we could introduce him to the team he was killed by the Joker.”

Diana gasped, “So the rumors were true? The Joker killed a Robin.”

Batman shrugged, “Yes and no. After I buried Jason, Ra Al Ghul stole his body and placed it inside the Lazarus pit. Jason came back insane, angry, fueled by pit rage and PTSD.”

At that Red Hood took off his helmet and his mask that he wore underneath, his bangs were white and his eyes flashed an eerie green before they were met with normal teal blue.

“Talia brainwashed me as well. I was angry and thirsty for blood so I ended up killing a lot of people, it took some time, Constantine and B had to fight to free my soul from the pit and some other drama for me to be able to function like this but I’ll never be fully sane. The pit changes you and that cannot be undone. I died at fifteen, couldn’t function as human until I was sixteen and was insane until I turned seventeen. I’m now nineteen.”

Bruce nodded to Jason and several people took in the fact that he had been a Robin and that he had been murdered and brought back from the dead until Bruce started speaking again.

“Around the same time as I was training Jason, I met Cassandra Cain who goes by Black Bat. She is the daughter of David Cain and Lady Shiva from the League of Assassins. She was raised to be a weapon and was only taught body language. She knows sign language and can speak but she prefers not too. She ran away from her father who made her kill a man and I adopted her. She didn’t want to join the team, she works best solo.”

Black Bat merely nodded to them before setting Nightwing’s broken fingers. 

“After Jason’s death I lost it. I couldn’t bring myself to kill the Joker and at the same time I wanted to be punished for my failure. I became reckless and dangerous. I was either going to kill someone or myself and that’s when Tim Drake came into the picture. He was at the circus the night Dick’s parents died and he recognized Dick as Robin. He figured out my identity and liked to follow us around and take pictures. When he saw that I was getting dangerous, he tried to make Dick become Robin again but he was busy with Barbra and everything she was going through so he came to me and forced me to make him Robin.”

Tim peeled of his mask and waved to the team, “He is the Robin that you all worked with after Nightwing changed his name. Tim was also the one who found Stephanie Brown, the daughter of Cluemaster who became a vigilante to make sure her father got caught and put into prison.”

The girl in the purple peeled off her mask as Tim stitched up her arm which no one noticed had been bleeding. Cassie scrowled at them both even though they didn’t see it. Robin and Cassie dated but when Robin wouldn’t let Cassie in, they broke up because of all the secrets. None of them even knew that Robin had moved on already, everyone assumed that he stopped doing team missions to get some distance between him and Cassie even though everyone knew that she wanted to patch things up between them.

“Barbra remade herself into Oracle at some point, a vigilante hacker who sometimes assists on team and league missions. I know some of you thought she was a computer programme, she isn’t, she’s my future daughter-in-law. Cass was at one point Batgirl but then she wanted her own name and became Blackbat, I’m pretty sure that Spoiler, Stephanie, is going to be the next Batgirl. We’re already working on the new suit for her. Anyway just after the drama with the Reach Talia Al Ghul dropped off our son Damian Wayne, the current Robin.”

Several raised eyebrows and Tim rolled his eyes, “While I was Robin on the team, Nightwing made it seem like Batman never left Gotham by wearing the cape and the cowl and Damian was his Robin. After the Reach invasion I decided to make my own name as well, becoming Red Robin. I stayed on the team for major missions and stuff and I kept the name Robin. We weren’t sure when Damian would be ready to join the team or if he would be willing to do so.”

Superman nodded his head slowly processing everything, “So basically every boy has been Robin for a time and every girl has been batgirl or will be batgirl at some point and we only met like three out of the eight of you. Well we know more about you guys than before but why tell us now?”

Batman merely sighed, “While the team and League were on mission Gotham was attacked by Talia and those in the League loyal to her. She wanted Damian to join her, he refused. Her response was to target the members of our family even though she knew that Barbra was pregnant, she targeted her. We were dealing with that while you were on mission. You deserved to know why we didn’t answer our comms and who the strangers in here are. Also after seeing all this it was highly unlikely that you wouldn’t figure some stuff out so the truth was just better.”

There was silence as everyone broke away giving the family space and time but Wally really didn’t like the one known as Red Hood. He was dangerous, you could feel that aura of a certain type of maliciousness that surrounded him and he didn’t trust him. 

“Megan, scan Hood’s mind. Nothing invasive just the top layer, he seems off to me.”

Kaldur frowned, “That might not be a good idea Wally.”

Wally shook his head, “Nothing deep. Just the top layer, he looks like he is about to kill us all. I just wanna know if he’s thinking about hurting anyone.”

Megan bit her lip and her eyes glowed green, Bruce’s head snapped to Jason as his son lunged at Megan his own eyes glowing the same eerie green color that they had seen earlier. His scream was inhumane as Nightwing and Bruce locked their arms around him and he fought like a wild animal. Cass wheeled Barbra away, Stephanie punched Megan in the face and Tim turned and glared at the team.

“You fucking used your powers on Jason. He is mentally unstable you stupid bitch, you could have sent him back into pit rage or trapped him inside a memory or broken the already fragile balance that he had within his mind.”

Conner stepped forward, “Don’t call her a bitch.”

Tim glared at him, “I won’t take it back. She has already proven that she doesn’t know the limits of her own power, that she is capable of using them without thinking of the consequences and here is a fact she just sent my brother back into pit rage where he can barely function as human.”

Several heroes watched as Jason had been restrained onto a table and then pumped with sedatives but his screams didn’t stop until he was unconscious.

Bruce stared at them all, “You had no right. I gave you everything you ever asked for but you had no right to try and steal information from his mind not when you didn’t know how he would react to a physic trying to read him and if you asked I would have told you that it would mentally unbalance him.”

Megan and Wally looked down in shame, “We just wanted to know if he was dangerous.”

Nightwing shook his head at them, “We already told you that he is, that he isn’t stable. This is the reason we don’t tell you anything. The less you know the better because then you do what you’re supposed too. When you know more, all you do is go digging deeper.”

The small Robin had a face of revulsion, “Father we should take Todd to the cave. Talia is gone, he will be safer there, away from them.”

Tim nodded his head, “Let’s go. We’ll have to hope that when he wakes up he is in control.”

One by one the bats left the watchtower and Wally, he couldn’t help but feel like the Bats wouldn’t be back, not in the same way ever again. Batman had continuously told them that his identity was linked to others and that he wouldn’t reveal himself without the permission of the others and now that they had finally stepped forward, to trust them, they threw it back in their faces. 

“Does anyone else think that we’re never going to be allowed near them with a 10 foot pole?” asked Artemis and Black Canary sighed.

“You really do know better.” She told them and Wally winced, “He felt off.”

Green Arrow couldn’t help but speak up, “Its probably the waters from the Lazarus pit. I trained with Nyssa Al Ghul, she broke off from her father but she told me about it. The user of the pit is never the same and you can feel that. Also I believe that putting him in the pit was an experiment because while the pit heals, it has never brought the dead back at least not in a functioning way. They used him and he didn’t deserve your treatment.”

“You condone his actions?” asked Superman and he shook his head.

“He clearly stated his insanity and struggle with control, that he doesn’t call himself a hero and that he doesn’t associate with other heroes because he knows we wouldn’t approve. I think we should leave the matter of the Red Hood to Batman since he has not been killing for the past two years. He isn’t a Leaguer or on the team hence not our problem.”

“I think it doesn’t matter what we do. Batman will never let us near his family again. They’re going to close themselves off from us for this.” Said Superman.

At the next meeting involving both the Leaguers and the team, the only people present were Red Robin, Nightwing and Batman, none of which allowed anyone near each other. It was just the beginning of the stories of how protective the bats were off each other and how they trusted no one but each other.


End file.
